Great Visit to Kyaithani Cluster October 9-12 2016

A team of Canadian supporters from St. Hilda's Anglican Church (Sechelt) and the Rotary Club of Sunshine Coast-Sechelt BC visited the Kyaithani cluster of schools  for 4 days in October 2016.  It was another life-changing visit!  For 3 of the visitors it was their first visit to Africa.  What a way to start!!

We first visited with members of our partner Machakos Rotary Club and with members of our partner Kenya Connect from Kenya and Maryland in the USA at the Kenya Connect Learning Resource Centre in Wamunyu (about an hour away from Kyaithani) to review the project progress to date and discuss plans for next year.  Our project members from Kyaithani and Lower Yatta Secondary Schools were also keen participants in the project team meeting.

Our project team includes Rotary Clubs of Machakos Kenya & Sunshine Coast-Sechelt Canada,
Kenya Connect Wamunyu Kenya & Maryland USA, and teachers and administrators of Kyaithani and Lower Yatta Secondary Schools in Kenya.

Then our team from Canada spent 3 days in the Kyaithani & lower Yatta area visiting all 7 schools in the Kyaithani cluster.  Members of our partner Kenya Connect accompanied us and we built a great partnership bond that we all hope will grow even stronger over time.

Our first stop was the new computer "Learning Resource Centre" at Lower Yatta Secondary school.  It will be so much more than just a computer lab!  We were very surprised to see that the principal Ann had already arranged to have dust covers made for each of the 21 computer monitors, screens and keyboards.

Lower Yatta computers with dust covers

Lower Yatta Principal Ann with her 205 female students

205 Kyaithani Secondary School students

As we toured each of the 5 primary schools and the 2 secondary schools we were amazed at the progress each had made in the past year.

At Kyaithani Secondary we could not believe the 100 students sharing the 20 newly installed computers in the new Learning resource Centre after a class break!

Kyaithani students share the 20 computers

Here are the 36 scholarship recipients at Kyaithani that donors support.  It takes $600 to provide a 4 year scholarship for each of these students.  Please consider helping.  It makes a HUGE difference in the lives of every recipient student.

36 Kyaithani scholarship recipients

We were honoured to acknowledge the teachers and administrators at Kyaithani and Lower Yatta Secondary Schools who work so hard to help these students achieve better grades and improve their future life options.

Kyaithani teachers/administrators

At each of the two dedication ceremonies we presented each school's Learning Resource Centre with a Plaque to commemorate the day and honor the donors who made this happen!

Kyaithani Learning Resource Centre Dedication Plaque

Lower Yatta Learning Resource Centre Dedication Plaque

The students in the Kyaithani Cluster area are so keen - beginning in Primary School.  Last year there was a big jump in the number of students carrying on from Primary to Secondary school.  We think that the availability of scholarships to attend secondary school is making a difference. 

There were 74 students in the Form 1 (entry level) class at Lower Yatta last January and all in one classroom!  How many will there be in January 2017?

74 new students at Lower Yatta - will make great use of the Learning Resource Centre

Lower Yatta girls are keen to learn about the computers

12 Lower Yatta Secondary scholarship recipients

With only 12 scholarships for a school population of 205 we have a long way to go to make a difference in the lives of these dedicated scholars.  We'd love to have your support of our scholarship program.  Visit www.ndandini-scholarshipfund.blogspot.com to read more and contribute.

Thanks for your interest and support.

Terry and Jan